Deidara's a Daddy
by lyonvastia
Summary: Deidara begins to question his loyalties to the Akatsuki after he and Tobi stumble upon a dying girl, leaving her little sister in their care.
1. Chapter 1

**Edit: I have completely rewritten some parts of this story in order for it to make sense. As well as fixing grammatical errors and such. So please enjoy :D**

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><p>Minako was exhausted. She had been running for the past five days through a thick forest in order to escape being killed by the Sound ninjas who had only just launched an attack on her clan.<p>

With no food inside her and hardly any water, she was ready to collapse. But she had to keep going, not just for her sake, but for her baby sister as well.

Minako wanted to stop and rest, maybe sleep for a good six hours or so, but that would leave them vulnerable, not to mention there could be people trailing her. It was unlikely since they were probably preoccupied with the massacre on her clan and she didn't think anyone had seen them, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

"Mom...Dad...Aito," she breathed, knowing she would never see her parents or older brother again, remembering how all the houses had been set on fire and seeing everyone hoplessely outnumbered. She didn't know if they were alive, but she didn't think they stood a chance against that. She shook her head in disbelief, unable to cry anymore, but still terrified at the very thought.

"Don't worry Hikari, I'll protect you. I promise," Minako whispered into her sister's ear. Hikari was sleeping, but she looked so peaceful that Minako smiled for the first time since fleeing the village.

They had been lucky enough to escape because Minako was on a walk to Marble lake with Hikari at the time of the attack. Marble Lake was on the outskirts of the village and was far away from the thick of the action.

Being only 7 years old, it would have been stupid for Minako to run back to find her family or try and help. She wasn't training to be a ninja and would only have gotten in the way and most likely would have gotten herself and Hikari killed.

She knew that there was another village on the other side of the forest; she believed it was the The Land of the Mist, but she really couldn't be too sure. Her head was pounding and she was so dizzy that the forest was starting to spin around her.

"No!" she cried out as her vision was becoming blurry and unfocused. She took a few unsteady steps in front of her and tripped over a root which sent sent her tumbling down a sharp incline.

Her first thought was of Hikari. She had promised she would protect her! Clutching the child close to her chest, she hoped Hikari would be okay. She was only a baby after all!

Hikari screamed and cried as they tumbled down the small ravine, Minako's body shielding her from the sharp rocks. When they finally reached the bottom, Minako glanced down at Hikari to make sure she was okay. She was still crying, but otherwise unharmed. Taking a look at her own body, there were dozens of scratches and her body felt so sore that she had a feeling bruises were developing all over.

Struggling to stand up, she cried out from the unbelievable pain radiating from her left ankle. She sat back down, biting her lip and cradling Hikari in her arms.

"What would you do big brother?" Minako couldn't help but ask, glancing towards the sky. Her older brother Aito had been a ninja and always found himself in situations like this when going on missions with his team.

She, however, never wanted to be a ninja, and instead took cooking classes, hoping to one day own her own restaurant. Or, maybe if she was lucky, an actress. She hated fighting. And she was clearly awful at protecting people considering her baby sister was still crying and had scratches all over her face and would most likely starve unless she could find them both food.

With no sense of direction either, she had no idea where they were, or how long it would take to get out of this god forsaken forest. Even if she did know the way out, she knew she was too weak. There was almost no strength left in her. Her body was bleeding in various places and she had a bad feeling that her ankle was sprained. Plus, the backpack she was wearing was missing, so now they were in desperate need of food.

She lay down, needing to think about what to do in their situation, when she heard voices coming from above her.

"Who knew jumping from tree to tree could be so much fun!" a high pitched guy's voice rang out over the forest.

"Tobi, shut the hell up you idiot! Do you want to just announce yourself to the whole world, hn?"

"Oh, Deidara," squealed the first voice, "what are we doing here anyways? I'm bored. Can we get some food? Oh please, can we!"

"Ugh, please stop talking. We're looking for the retarded fish's sword. Apparently he dropped it over this forest. How can someone be so careless?"

"Ohhh I see now. Hm. Why's he making you do it?"

"Well, because he ordered me to do it because he's a lazy son of a bitch, and he said he'd sic Itachi on me if I didn't do it. Plus, I uh, sort of owe him one after blowing up his room."

"Ahahahah wow Senpai, you sure know how to make people angry. Boy, and you sure are scared of Itachi huh?"

"SHUT UP! Just because Kisame ordered me to go find his stupid sword, doesn't mean I'm the one who's going to be doing it. Since you're under my command, I'm making you do it. So go find it, hn."

"Whatever you say Deidara," the voice said, cackling insanely.

Minako, who was still struggling to see what was going on, had no problem hearing, and grew extremely terrified when she heard someone drop to the ground near her. She glanced over at him, only to see a blurry figure wearing a bright orange mask.

She gasped when she realized he was wearing the Akatsuki uniform; a black cloack with red clouds. And he was carrying their signature hat in his hand.

She had heard of them and knew they were one of the most dangerous organizations to have existed in a long, long time.

"Now, where is that sword? Wait, why are we even looking for it in the first place?" The guy with the mask asked himself whilst scratching his head.

She crawled along the ground quietly, holding Hikari, and tried to blend in behind a bush.

Orange mask perked up when she moved to hide.

"Is someone here? Tobi will find you! He's great at hide and go seek," he exclaimed gleefully.

"Oh no," Minako murmured. She tried to be as still as possible, covering Hikari's mouth, hoping they would go unnoticed, but it was her rather heavy breathing that gave her away.

Plus, no one could fool Tobi.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and she wildly looked around, finding herself face to face with orange mask.

"I found you!" he exclaimed. "Oh you look like a girl version of Deidara!" He squealed, pointed at her long blonde hair; part of it covering her right eye. But that was only because of the position she was currently in.

"Well, actually, Deidara looks enough like a girl anyways," orange mask chuckled.

"Please," Minako started to say, trying to choose her words carefully, "please don't hurt me." She wanted to back away, take her sister and run, but she knew she didn't have much time left.

"Ohhhh you're hurt, are you?" He just seemed to notice the condition she was in, her eyes barely able to stay open.

"Tobi, what the hell are you doing, hn?" a pissed off sounding voice said as he landed next to Tobi. "You're being so-" he stopped when he noticed what Tobi was looking at. A girl, who looked no older than 8 years old, was badly hurt - that was obvious, but she was also carrying a baby who didn't seem to be suffering from any serious injuries.

Minako glanced up wearily at the new arrival. If this was the 'Deidara' the orange mask was talking about, then yeah, they kind of did look similar.

From the way Tobi was staring at the two, well Deidara could only assume he was staring what with the mask and all, he had a bad feeling he knew what he was thinking.

"No way Tobi," Deidara said. "We have a mission, let's go. Although we should probably kill these two that they've seen us, hn. You can take care of that part Tobi."

And with that, Deidara turned around and started walking away muttering about how stupid Kisame was.

"Where are you from?" Tobi asked before he could stop himself.

Minako was terrified, and assumed they'd most definitely kill her if she didn't answer their questions.

"I'm part of the Suzuki clan from the Village Hidden in the Rock, and it was just attacked," she added, hoping maybe they would spare her if they knew she just lost everything.

That stopped Deidara in his tracks. He was from the the Village Hidden in the Rock as well. He wasn't part of any clan though. Normally he didn't pity people, but he couldn't help feeling sorry for the little girl who had probably just lost her whole family, and now was slowly dying from her injuries. She looked like she'd been through hell and back. She was probably starving too, considering how gaunt she looked.

"Please," Minako whispered, "please take her. I don't care who you guys are or what you've done, please just get her somewhere safe..." Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes.

"I-I think she's dead," Tobi said, picking up a stick so he could prod her to see if she really was dead.

"Tobi! Have some respect!" Deidara wrenched the stick away from him, snapped in half, and threw it far into the woods.

But Tobi wasn't listening. Now he knelt down and was poking the baby. It made a cooing noise and he giggled.

"Can we keep it Deidara?" he asked with glee.

Deidara glanced down at the baby girl, her blonde hair sticking up.

"I don't know," he said awkwardly, " I mean, who's gonna look after her? I feel like Pain would kill us if we took her back to the hideout. Maybe," he looked around making sure no one was looking, "maybe we could just take her and drop her off on someone's door or something, hn."

He knew nobody was probably close by, but it was still embarrassing to even suggest that. No one from the Akatsuki would let him live it down they caught him delivering babies to safety. They'd probably kill him right then and there if he actually brought her to the hideout.

But he couldn't help but feel sorry for her as she clearly had no one left. Kind of like all the Akatsuki members. Well, Itachi had Sasuke, but they weren't on the best speaking terms as of right now. Nope. Killing your entire clan can definitely hurt a relationship.

Tobi had been staring intently at Deidara this whole time, and he could tell from the embarrassed expression on his face that he was going to give in.

"Tobi will be a good boy and raise you right little one!" He went to pick up the little girl but Deidara slapped his hand away.

"I'll carry her."

"Soooo, does this mean we're going to take her back to the hideout! If so, I can't wait to introduce her to everyone!" Tobi started humming loudly.

Deidara picked the girl up, and decided the hell with it. She looked under fed, and he felt like she needed some medical assistance. Not being one to trust people, he wanted to help her himself.

_'Besides,'_ he thought, _'I don't care what the others say, because I was forced to join this freaking organization, and she'll be a reminder that they don't have complete control over me._' He knew he'd have a hard time convincing Pain to keep her around, but he'd find a way to make a good argument in her case. He liked to think himself a master arguer by now, considering it's all he and Hidan did when they saw each other.

With that, he smiled, signaled to Tobi to stop being an idiot, and they set off for their base.

Too bad they forgot to keep looking for Kisame's sword. Whoops.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N – Sorry for not posting one of these earlier!**

**Also, this takes place in Part 1 of Naruto, so they're all a little younger than they appear in the second part.**

**But that would make Deidara 15 in this.**

**I hope everyone likes this idea! Read and review :)**

Deidara glanced at the Akatsuki hideout that was so well hidden by the thick trees surrounding it.

He hoped that no one would kill him as soon as he stepped inside.

Meanwhile, Tobi was still gushing over the child, and happened to be skipping merrily along picking up flowers and putting them in her hair.

"Mr. Zetsu!" Tobi suddenly cried out, dashing over to the unusual looking man who was heading over to the green house to water his precious plants.

'What's he doing out here right now?' Deidara thought nervously. 'Damn I hope Tobi doesn't-'

"Mr. Zetsu, Mr. Zetsu! Guess who we found?" Tobi was practically jumping out of his skin from the excitement.

Deidara clapped his hand to his forehead. "Gee thanks, Tobi," he muttered, "Always have to blow our cover, don't you, hn?"

He trudged unhappily over to where Tobi had just announced they had found a little girl.

Zetsu turned to Deidara, a bemused expression on his face. Well, the white face anyways.

"**Are you an idiot?** If you were hoping to keep her here for whatever reason, I highly doubt Pain would agree to that. **Haha, you're dead once Pain finds out. **I guess you could try and reason with him. **He's gonna kill you."**

Sometimes talking to Zetsu really got you nowhere what with his two personalities and all. But he had to admit, he was probably right...about Pain killin him on the spot.

"It's just, well, I-I couldn't leave her. She's from the same village as me," he protested.

Tobi gasped as if realizing something important. "What if she's related to you Deidara!"

Zetsu glanced down at the small child resting in Deidara's arms. "She does look like you, you know. **Yeah, you're both blonde and look like girls."**

Scowling, Deidara turned to Tobi, "Come on, I want to get this over with now, hn."

Deidara started to open the door, but stopped and looked back at Tobi, who was closely follwing behind.

"What is it?" he asked, tilting his head to the side like a curious child.

"I want you to take her for now. Pain might see her and explode or something. I don't want him to kill her. Just, just follow me, but stay far away enough so Pain doesn't-"

"So Pain doesn't what?"

Deidara's eyes widened and he slowly turned away from Tobi and back to the door.

Pain happened to be standing there, his arms crossed.

Now it was Pain's turn to be shocked when he saw the little bundle in Tobi's arms. Tufts of blonde hair were poking out of it.

"Is that a baby?" In all his years in the Akatsuki, he had never been so surprised. It was just completely unexpected.

Trying to regain his composure Pain asked, "Why is there a child with you?"

Deidara held his hands up, "Alright listen, me and Tobi-"

"Tobi and I," corrected Tobi.

Pain and Deidara both shot him death glares that were enough to shut him up.

"Tobi and I," Deidara said through gritted teeth, "were wandering the Lochmere Forest looking for Kisame's sword-"

This time Deidara stopped himself because it just dawned on him that they hadn't gotten around to finding it. Oh shit. Too late to worry about that now.

"Sorry, anyways, there was this girl, and I'd say she was about 7 or 8 years old. Well, she was definitely dying as she was suffering from starvation and she had all these bruises and deep cuts all over her body. And she has this baby with her," he gestured to the baby now in Tobi's arms, "and well, then the girl just kind of died."

"What made you think it was okay to bring this child home? You realize any one of us would have just put the two of them out of their misery right away without a second thought."

Deidara blushed. He could tell he was losing this argument. The cold disappoint in Pain's voice told him that. He wished he'd yell rather than just stare at him like that. It was very unnerving.

"That's not it though," Deidara said quickly. "Before the girl died, she told us she was from the Village Hidden in the Rock, and well, that's where I'm from. I guess her clan had just been attacked and there's probably no survivors. I-I just couldn't leave her like that. Or kill her. I know how bad that sounds, especially coming from a member of the Akatsuki, but I thought our ultimate goal was to bring peace anyways. It's not like she's the enemy. I hate the idea of killing off innocent kids like that."

Those last words had actually gotten through Pain. It reminded him of that time he, Yahiko, and Konan had been rescued by Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. Except Orochimaru wanted to kill them and end their misery like that. He could understand where Deidara was coming from, but who would take care of her?

"Please please Leader! Look at how cute she is!" Tobi cried.

Deidara jabbed him in the side. "Tobi, shut up, you're not helping, hn."

"Who would take care of her?" Pain finally asked.

"Well, I guess I would have the most responsibility. Then, maybe we could all take turns or something, hn," Deidara finished lamely.

"And what use is she of to me anyways?"

Deidara frowned than said, "We could train her from an early age. I feel like if she had all of us powerful Akatsuki members teaching her their different techniques she'd become more powerful than any of us one day. Plus, we could possibly use her as a spy if need be, hn."

"You do realize how much a child costs right?"

"I'm sure Kakuzu could tell us," Tobi chimed in.

Deidara rolled his eyes. "Well, then I guess I'll just either have to start stealing money or find another way to get some. Maybe I could talk to Kakuzu about it."

Pain paused, and didn't speak for a few minutes, clearly thinking everything over.

Deidara glanced around nervously, knowing he didn't give very good reasons. He truly wasn't even sure what was so special about the kid anyways. He did want to take the kid in as getting revenge sort of on the Akatsuki, but he realized now that that wasn't so bright after all, considering he'd probably haven to take on full responsibility.

That was when something else occurred to him.

"The other thing is, sir," Deidara said hesitantly, "a lot of us come from pretty terrible back grounds, and when I joined, I had this feeling that maybe I'd know what it was like to finally have a family. If we all had similar pasts, I figured we'd have stuff in common so we'd have to get along and maybe it'd be fun, hn."

Deidara took a brief pause. "I do like the Akatsuki, but all we do when we're together is argue and nothing ever gets done. I also thought that maybe if we raised this child together, to be one of us, it'd bring us closer, hn."

Deidara knew it sounded pretty lame. But it was true. He had no family. Not many of them did. They all seemed to be orphans.

When he was little, Deidara had two older brothers, but they both died and he never saw them anyways because they were always on missions. They had taken care of him well enough though, even if they didn't see him very much.

He just felt this strong urge to take care of someone. Even if he was part of an organization like the Akatsuki, he didn't see why he couldn't do that.

Look at Konan and Pain. They were really the only two who got along. Deidara wanted someone like that. But he'd been hiding that feeling ever since he was forced to join. He was sure the others felt like that too. Well, maybe. Way deep down inside.

"Fine," said Pain "On two conditions."

"Yes, hn?"

"Everyone else has to have a say in this, and agree on it. If one person says no, then she dies. And, you have to prove to me she's not useless. If you can do that, we'll raise her to become a fine Akatsuki member."`

Deidara was unsure of how to react to that. On one hand, he was grateful Pain was giving him a chance. On the other hand, how was he going to convince everyone but Tobi to want to keep the girl?

Especially Hidan?

He sighed, but smiled and thanked Pain.

"Come inside. I'm going to call a meeting right away," Pain said.

**~At the meeting~**

Pain, with the occasional interruptions from Tobi, explained the situation to everyone.

After he was done, Konan had a big smile on her face. She usually never spoke at the Akatsuki meetings, but this was such an unexpected topic.

"I think we should keep her," she said, glancing over at the little baby.

"Tobi agrees!" Tobi said, squeezing the baby a little too tightly.

"Tobi stop," Deidara exclaimed taking her away from him.

"Are you fucking serious?" Hidan shouted. "What the hell are we gonna do with a baby? Unless you want me to sacrifice her," he smirked at Deidara and Tobi.

"I don't know," said Kakuzu. "I feel like that'd be more trouble than it's worth. Not to mention how much money we'd lose."

"Well, think about it. We could train her from a young age to steal money or something. And with her training with all of us she could have this awesome power we could use to threaten villages, hn."

"If you put it that way, well, maybe she could be of some use. I say yes for now I guess," said Kakuzu.

Kisame chuckled. "I say we keep her. We need another person to lighten this place up. I could teach her how to be funny and awesome like me," he said leaning back in his chair.

Deidara smiled. Maybe everyone would agree. Hidan was still iffy though. And Sasori and Itachi stared forward remaining impassive.

"If she could help me in the greenhouse than yeah, why not? **I could put her to work all day and relax**," said Zetsu.

Shockingly enough, Hidan said, "Well, you know, what whatever. If you guys want to raise some kid go ahead. As long as I don't have to take care of the brat."

That's when Pain added, "If we agree to take her in, than I expect all of you to do something. Deidara can't be up 24 hours a day taking care of her."

"What the fuck! Forget it then," Hidan said turning away. "Actually wait, I'll change my mind if you let me convert her to my religion."

"No way!" both Deidara and Konan shouted.

"You want to keep the baby?" he smirked evilly.

"Hidan, we don't need any more Jashin worshipers," Pain said coldly.

"Seriously? Than how the fuck is some stupid brat going to help me anyway?"

"Come on, Hidan, just give her a chance. You could help her train her when she's older. I don't care if you tell her about the religion, as long as you don't actually convert her or show her how you kill people with it, hn."

"Whatever. I really don't care anymore. Keep her if you want. Bet she won't like what I'll"

Deidara felt so much better now. All that remained were Sasori and Itachi.

"Saori? Itachi?" He asked, raising his eyebrow warily.

"I can tell that this means a lot to you, so I'll say yes," Itachi said. Deidara opened his mouth in surprise. He hadn't expected him to give in so easily.

All eyes turned to Sasori.

Sasori sat contemplating it. If he could teach her how to control puppets that would actually be pretty cool he had to admit.

"Come on! Hurry the fuck up!" Hidan shouted, fidgeting in his seat impatiently.

Scowling at Hidan, Sasori replied, "Yeah, whatever. I don't care."

"It's settled then. Don't forget, you _all_ have to help," Pain said, looking directly at Hidan.

"So, what's her name?" Kisame asked, curious.

"Oh, I don't know. Her sister never mentioned it, hmmm."

"We could name her after Tobi!"

"Tobi, shut up," said Kakuzu.

"Does anyone have any suggestions?" Pain asked the group.

"Let's name her the bitch," Hidan said, picking at his nails.

"Shut up Hidan, this is serious," said Konan.

"Oh that's right, there already is a bitch," Hidan mumbled under his breath.

"Suki?" Sasori offered.

"Nah, that's too close to her last name. It's Suzuki. I remember the girl mentioning that before she died, hn."

"What about Naomi?" Everyone stared at Itachi in surprise. "It means beautiful," he added.

Everyone started nodding their head in agreement. Even Hidan agreed he liked the name.

"Welcome to the family Naomi," Deidara whispered in her ear, smiling.

**~A few days later~**

Tobi stopped washing the dishes for a second to glance happily up at the scene before him. For once, everyone seemed to be getting along.

Itachi was playing a game of chess with Pain, smirking when he realized he had this game in the bag. Kakuzu was going to owe him twenty bucks.

Kisame was lounging on the couch, "borrowing" one of Itachi's books while Deidara was bouncing Naomi up and down on his lap and making funny faces.

Konan and Zetsu were working together to bake a cake as it was almost Kisame's birthday. They were having fun throwing cake mix at each other. Plus, neither of them knew how to make a cake anyways, so altogether, it was a fun experience.

Kakuzu was posing with bags of money in his hand while Sasori painted him.

Deidara kept shooting them shifty looks, and then rolled his eyes when he saw Sasori handing the finished product to Kakuzu. He thought it'd be much more interesting to blow the picture up instead.

The only one who was missing was Hidan. That wasn't surprising in the least.

Tobi sighed, now drying off the dishes one by one with his favorite orange dish towel. Hidan always seemed to be missing, causing trouble, or both.

Oh well. He'd turn up eventually. Most likely covered in blood. Or drunk. He had a bad habit of wandering into random villages, stealing alcohol and sacrificing random people to Jashin when Pain didn't give them any missions.

Once he was so drunk, he stumbled into the house, naked, winked at Deidara telling him to meet him upstairs, and then tried sacrificing Kisame to Jashin. It didn't go over so well.

Tobi laughed at the memory and went to ask Konan and Zetsu if he could help decorate the badly burned cake.

Hidan may be an idiot, but he was definitely an interesting guy.

"Kiss!" Naomi shrieked happily, reaching for Kisame.

He chuckled as she tried to grab the book.

"No no no Naomi, I'll let you read these kinds of books when you're older."

Deidara's frown turned into a scowl as he yanked the book out of Kisame's hands.

"A porn magazine? Seriously? What the hell Kisame! Don't read that kind of crap around her, hn."

"What the fuck are you on about now blondie?" Hidan asked, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, shirtless, as always. Catching a glimpse of the naked woman on the cover, Hidan smirked, leaned over Deidara and gave Kisame a high five.

Deidara, furious, threw it so hard that it flew over Kisame's head and hit the portrait of Kakuzu, which had been posted on the fridge, leaving a huge tear down the left side.

"That too me awhile to make!" Sasori cried. "Do you know how hard it is to paint freaking Kakuzu? He moves like every three seconds!"

Kakuzu looked up from counting his money and growled at Sasori. "I wouldn't say such things if I were you."

Back in the kitchen, Konan and Zetsu were now arguing over whose fault it was that the cake had burned to a crisp. That's when they decided they could just blame it all on Tobi.

Itachi groaned, covering his face with his hands. "Wait a minute," he muttered to himself, looking over at the familiar magazine over on the kitchen floor, "Kisame, have you been looking through my stuff again?"

Kisame's face turned a darker shade of blue and he grinned sheepishly. "Yeah..about that..." his voice trailed off.

Itachi stood up and glared at his partner. "Foolish shark." With that, he picked up the magazine, turned on his heels, and left the room all the while Hidan was shouting and hollering about Itachi looking at naked woman.

Tobi frowned and sighed. Well, there goes that special moment.

Naomi burst out laughing when she saw Hidan jumping up and down shouting insults at Itatchi.

"Shut your fucking mouth you brat," he said turning to glare down at her smiling face.

"Language Hidan," Pain said unexpectedly from across the room.

Throwing his hands up in the air and muttering darkly, he started to walk away.

Naomi burst out in tears and everyone covered their ears.

"Looks like she wants her Uncle Hidan," Kisame sneered.

Hidan's face contorted with disgust as he said, "Why me? Why not Kakuzu? Seriously, why the fuck do you like me so much? The only time I would ever want you brat is to sacrifice you to Jashin."

"You're an asshole, you know that Hidan?" Deidara said.

"Thanks, I know," Hidan grinned as he took a bow.

Kakuzu threw an empty pizza box at him.

Hidan easily dodged it. "You know what? Eat a dick Kakuzu," he snarled.

"Deidara, please shut the child up. I was nice enough to allow her to stay. If you can't keep her quiet, then I'm going to do something about it," Pain said quietly.

"Yeah I know I know," grumbled Deidara.

"Deidara, Sasori, and Hidan, I want all three of you to go to the store tomorrow to get whatever stuff that Naomi would need. Konan can make a list of certain items, but she can't go with you tomorrow as we'll be going on a mission together."

All three of them started grumbling under their breath and Hidan shouted "What the fuck? Why me?"

"I'll bet they're secretly just gonna fuck," Hidan said to Kisame, low enough so that Pain and Konan wouldn't hear.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N – Hey guys. Here's the third chapter! Oh, and I would like to just warn you now, I'm not sticking to the plot of the original storyline. I've made up my own. . Plus, I like the idea of them living together in one hideout.**

**Disclaimer – I own nothing**

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><p>Deidara was running through a forest. He knew he had to hide and escape the evil thing chasing him, but he didn't know what it was.<p>

Every time he turned around, he saw a giant shadow looming over the forest and it was getting closer and closer.

"Katsu!" he cried, making a pathetic excuse for a hand signal and throwing his clay birds in the direction of the shadow.

Unfortunately for him, the clay birds only seemed to melt and fuse with the shadow, making it seem more monstrous and frightening.

"Dammit," Deidara muttered to himself, still running for his life," if Hidan saw me right now, he'd never let me live this down. I may as well sacrifice myself to Jashin to save him the trouble, hn."

All of a sudden Deidara stopped, finding that he couldn't move.

"What the hell's going on!?"

Looking around, everything around him started to turn black then white than back to black and Deidara was spinning unable to control his body.

As Deidara found himself helpless, he saw horrible and disturbing scenes around him.

He saw people around him being tortured and villages being set on fire and destroyed.

His vision was blurry and out of focus and one scene shifted to the next but it was all the same thing. Devastation after devastation. People being murdered and slain right in front of him.

He saw a black cloud descending over a village, lightning flashed and a house burst into flames. The rivers were filled with blood and the streets with bodies.

The animals were dying slow, painful deaths and the fields were busting into flames. Grotesque faces swirled in and out and then the scene shifted once again to the village with the black cloud above it.

A swarm of bugs emerged from within the black cloud and descended into the village eating the remains of what was left.

Deidara suddenly recognized the village that was being slain so mercilessly. It was his own.

He covered his eyes and screamed because he didn't want to see these terrifying images. Yet, he saw his family, his neighbors, and his people being slaughtered before his eyes over and over again. Even the people who he knew for certain had been dead for many years, such as his two brothers, were being tortured before his very eyes.

Though he was a member of the Akatsuki, his village meant a lot to him. However, he didn't express it very well, and he hadn't come to their aid when that girl he and Tobi met in the forest told him it was being attacked. But he thought that by taking in the little girl Naomi in, he'd be doing something good for once in his life.

Looking up, Deidara saw that the sky was pitch black and and the moon was so incredibly huge it couldn't be real.

In the distance on a mountain, their was a tall, brown pole. And crouched at the top of that pole was a figure. A figure clad in black with hauntingly glowing red eyes. And it was staring at him.

Deidara gasped when the light illuminated the man's face. It was Itachi.

There was no mistaking that long raven hair tied back in a ponytail and his red sharingan eyes.

"Itatchi!" Deidara yelled, running towards him. "You need to get out of here." There was a sense of desperation in his voice and he couldn't understand why Itachi looked so calm at a time like this.

But what was he doing here? He should be escaping. Not overlooking the destruction of the world around him.

That's when realization struck Deidara. Stopping in his tracks, he slowly looked back up at Itachi with pure hatred.

He was the cause of this chaos.

Itachi stood up, knowing he had been seen, and looked down at Deidara, his face expressionless.

And cradled in Itachi's hands was...Naomi!

How had Deidara not seen her before?

Itachi grinned evilly at him, made a quick hand signal Deidara almost didn't catch, and disappeared into nothingness.

Deidara froze, completely shocked.

Everyone he knew was dead or dying as he ran from the destruction done by Itachi.

_'That bastard,_' he thought. '_I knew I had a good reason to hate him.'_

Remembering he had to save Naomi, he pulled himself out of his thoughts and ran down the road. Glancing at the chaos around him, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a blue figure underneath a smoldering piece of wood. It was Kisame.

"Deidara, run...don't let him get you..." Kisame said in a strangled voice, noticing Deidara. He looked barely alive and he had open sores and wounds all over his body, not to mention . He reached a hand out to grasp Deidara but fell over and didn't move.

"Kisame!" Deidara tried to remove the debris off of his comrade but it wouldn't budge. And the longer Deidara kept his hands on it the more it burned. With the pain stinging his fingers, he had to let go. It was hard considering the condition Kisame was in.

"Kisame, what's going on? Where is everyone? Wake up! You have to answer me! What's Itachi done with Naomi, hn?"

Kisame's eyes stared blankly ahead and he was no longer breathing.

"Kisame...please," Deidara begged, something he wasn't use to doing. Akatsuki members didn't beg. They only killed people and caused destruction without letting their emotions get in the way. But death and destruction is exactly what Deidara saw all around him.

And it made him sick to his stomach. Did they really cause this kind of fear and pain? He had never given it a thought before. He couldn't stand to look at it. To see the people helpless, running for their lives, than collapsing and writhing in pain as flames consumed their body.

In that moment, Itachi appeared right before him and all around him flames were rolling around.

trying not to show how afraid he really was.

Itatchi looked into his eyes, allowing Deidara to see the rest of his fellow Akatsuki members in chains, half starved, but alive. Even Kisame was there and that was rather odd considering Deidara had just seen him die.

He knew Itachi was holding them all prisoner. But he didn't no where. With a sinking feeling, Deidara felt like he was going to have to choose between them and Naomi.

Itachi raised his hands and gestured to the horrible scene around him.

The wind started to blow violently around them and it started to downpour.

Tornadoes begun to pop up everywhere, destroying the remains of what was left of the village, and the wind roared so hard it knocked Deidara right off his feet.

Struggling to get to his knees, Deidara raised his hand to shield himself from the rain and he caught a glimpse of Naomi. The real Naomi.

She was still in Itachi's arms, looking unharmed but terrified.

Naomi didn't understand what was going on, but Deidara had a feeling that she too sensed the evil aura radiating from Itachi.

The scene shifted once more and he and Itachi were standing on two rocks in the middle of the ocean.

Black clouds rolled by at an alarming rate in the now orange sky.

The sea stung Deidara's eyes as it splashed forcefully against the piece of rock he was standing on.

With a snap of his fingers, Itachi appeared right beside Deidara, and stuck him through with a sword.

Where had that come from?

"No...Itachi...how-how could you...I'm sorry guys..I'm sorry Naomi...ah" gasped Deidara, struggling to breath.

Behind Itachi, the huge, mysterious black shadow had finally arrived. It was Tobi. Except he was gigantic.

The last thing Deidara saw was the evil twinkle in Tobi's eye and Itachi driving the blade all the way through his body.

Deidara felt his body go numb, everything around him was spinning, and he felt himself fade away into nothingness.

* * *

><p>Deidara woke with a start, breathing hard and gasping for breath, his blonde hair all astray, and his whole body shaking and covered in sweat.<p>

A red head was staring intently down at him with a concerned expression on his face.

Deidara's vision was blurry and unfocused, but he could recognize that bright red hair from anywhere.

Sasori. But what was he holding in his hand? He squinted to see if it would help him see better with no such luck.

All of a sudden, cold water splashed all over his face.

Shooting straight up and rubbing his eyes, Deidara shouted, "Ah bastard! What was that for, hn!"

"I couldn't wake you up and you were sweating like crazy in your sleep. Plus, you were mumbling about some pretty weird stuff..." Sasori's voice trailed off.

Deidara couldn't believe it. It had all been a dream! He was still alive!

Taking a deep breath, Deidara never realized how great it felt to be alive.

He was so happy that he hugged Sasori.

"Am I interrupting something special?" Kisame smirked from the doorway.

"Kisame!" Deidara yelled, pushing aside a shocked Sasori and practically attacking Kisame.

"Man, what's gotten into hiim today?" Kisame asked Sasori, raising an eyebrow.

Feeling his face go red, Deidara mentally cursed himself for acting so stupid.

Akatsuki members don't go around hugging people. Especially their comrades. That was unheard of.

Well, unless you were Tobi.

"Well, you see, it's just that," Deidara said wildly, thinking of an excuse, "I...uh..I missed you guys. You know we never do stuff together and everyone's always fighting so I figured I'd start a new trend, hn."

Wow. What a lame excuse. It didn't even really make sense.

Kisame chuckled. "Whatever Deidara, you know I don't care. Oh, and don't forget you two," he pointed at Sasori and Deidara, "have to go shopping for Naomi today. You better go wake that lazy ass Hidan up."

Only one word seemed to have registered with Deidara. Naomi!

He had to make sure she was okay and not with...well, he hated to say it, but Itatchi.

Deidara had never liked Itachi ever since _he _was the one who forced Deidara to join the Akatsuki. Not to mention he openly mocked his art. But after that awfully realistic dream, Deidara shuddered at the mere thought of Itachi's name.

Something was off about that guy. And Deidara wanted to find out.

"I'll be right back, I'm going to go eat something than get Naomi, okay? Can you wake Hidan up, hn?" Deidara asked Sasori.

"Yeah, I'll try," Sasori said without looking up. He was busy trying to craft a new puppet at the moment and didn't want to be disturbed.

When Deidara entered the kitchen, he found Kakuzu holding up dollar bills and showing them to Naomi, and relief washed over him.

As long as it wasn't Itachi, he was fine with it.

He found Tobi humming to himself while making pancakes on a griddle.

This almost made him laugh, but then he realized how wary he felt around Tobi. He was that giant ferocious looking shadow in his dream after all.

Pain walked in to the kitchen, looking like he barely got any sleep. He looked as awful as Deidara felt.

But of course, Deidara looked pretty awful too at the moment.

"So Deidara, how long do you think it'll take you three to go shopping?" Pain asked since they were both conveniently right there.

"Not too long I hope," muttered Deidara, "but with Hidan tagging along it'll probably take a century or two. I'll try to make it as quick as possible though. After this I'll see if Hidan's up, grab Naomi-"

"That won't be necessary," Pain interrupted. "Naomi can stay here. She'll only draw attention to you guys if you out in public. But you don't have to worry, she'll be looked after here. Most of us have separate missions, but Itachi will be here to keep her entertained."

"Wha-what?" Deidara gasped.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N – Hey guys! I'm really sorry. I would have updated so much sooner but I've been on a cruise for the past week and I'm finally back, but the drive home is taking so long ahhh. I'm not a big fan of long road trips anymore! Well, since I'm at a hotel with a computer, I finally finished typing this chapter so I could post it! **

**Please enjoy this next chapter!**

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><p>"Is there a problem with me watching her?" Itachi was leaning against the kitchen wall, his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.<p>

Deidara almost snapped his neck with how fast he whipped his head around to stare at Itachi.

How does he do that? Always appearing out of nowhere when you least expect it, wearing that stupid smirk.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't smirking. In fact, his face remained as impassive as ever.

But with the way he held himself, you'd think he was all high and mighty.

After contemplating on what to say, Deidara finally blinked and said, "No, but if we're going to buy her clothes than she kind of needs to be there to try things on. Hn."

Itachi threw him a questioning look, but walked away remaining silent.

Pain looked from Deidara to Itachi's retreating figure back to Deidara with a bemused expression.

"What the heck's going on between you and Itachi?"

"Itachi? I thought you and Sasori had something going on."

Kisame had just entered the room and as usual he had to find a way to interrupt every conversation.

Putting his hand on Deidara's shoulder Kisame laughed, "You know, I never would have guessed you'd go from Sasori to Itachi."

"Knock it off Kisame, I'm not in the mood, " Deidara said, shrugging off Kisame's hand and brushing past him with a scowl on his face.

"What's with him? I can always count on him to laugh at my jokes when no one else does." Kisame said, clearly offended.

"Kisame, you have a mission today with Kakuzu and Tobi. It would be best if you didn't forget that."

Without another word, Pain grabbed an apple off the counter and walked away.

"Man, everyone here is in a lousy mood. They need to lighten up. And since when do we switch partners? Why am I stuck with lollipop and the guy that's obsessed with money," Kisame grumbled to himself.

Konan, who had been listening to the whole conversation from her seat at the kitchen table offered her suggestion.

"Deidara's probably just going through puberty. He's like what? 15 now? He's bound to get hormonal sometimes. Don't worry about him, just concentrate on your mission for today."

Kisame stared stupidly at the floor as he thought about what Konan just said.

Deidara was only 15? How come he didn't know that? Deidara looked so much older than 15. He would have guessed at least 18.

Kisame started counting on his fingers trying to figure out how much older he was than Deidara.

'14! Wow, 14 years,' thought Kisame. Why he was old enough to be Deidara's...well, not his father...but 14 years was quite the age difference.

Rubbing his chin, Kisame walked away to think about this surprising fact.

**~At the store~**

"Hey Sasori, check this out! Maybe the brat would like this," Hidan said squeezing the pink toy in his hand and dropping it in surprise after it let out a high pitched squeak.

He moved to grab his scythe off his back but ended up grasping at air momentarily forgetting that he had to leave his weapon back at the hide out so as not to startle the other people in the shop.

Sasori rolled his eyes.

"Wow, your pathetic. By the way, that's a dog toy you idiot."

Hidan's face turned a bright shade of red before yelling, "Well how the fuck was I supposed to know? Ugh, I hate shopping. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever had to do! I could be killing people right now, but I'm stuck with you two and the brat."

Deidara scowled in Hidan's direction at that last sentence while Sasori's face remained stoic, like always.

Gripping his face with his hands, Hidan knew it was only a matter of minutes before he went insane.

"Calm down Hidan. Do you want the whole store to hear us?" Sasori didn't even blink.

For some reason, Sasori's annoyingly calm face seemed to piss Hidan off even more.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You're like a fucking robot! I've never even seen you eat. If being here doesn't want to make you kill everyone than you're obviously not human."

Sasori chuckled. For once Hidan was right about something.

Deidara groaned. "Just shut up. We still need to get diapers and baby food. Be helpful for once in your life. We're doing this for Naomi, hn."

"What makes you think I give a fuck about her? I'm an Akatsuki member for crying out loud! I kill people."

Sasori couldn't help but thinking Hidan had a point. He don't know what made him agree to this.

"It's a good thing there's no one over here. Sometimes I think you're worse than Tobi," Deidara muttered. "Both of you are way too loud, yeah."

Hidan turned to face Deidara looking murderous. "I swear I'll sacrifice you right here if you say that again. Go ahead, I dare you."

Deidara shook his head and turned into the aisle that held the jars of baby food.

Sitting in the front seat of the cart, Naomi giggled when Hidan followed them.

She laughed and said, "He!" She couldn't pronounce Hidan's name yet so she called him "he" for short.

Eye twitching, Hidan said, "Deidara, hurry the fuck up. The brat's staring at me and I'm going insane."

Sasori grabbed a bunch of random jars and threw them into the cart on top of everything else.

"Nope, he's definitely worse than Tobi. He acts like a woman."

"What the fuck-" Hidan started to say but was cut off by Sasori.

"One, you're always bitching and complaining."

Deidara grinned and joined in. "Two, you never shut up, hn."

"And three," Sasori finished, "you're unbelievably annoying."

"At least I don't have fucking long hair like blondie here does!" Hidan said, pointing at Deidara.

Running a hand through his hair in defense Deidara snapped back, "At least I have some decency. You can't go anywhere without sticking out your chest and ripping your shirt off. Oh look at me!"

Deidara took his hands off the cart and lifted up his shirt, exposing his bare chest.

Then he started strutting around the aisle.

"Look everyone! I'm Hidan and I think I'm so awesome and great yet in reality everyone hates me and my gross habits. I mean really, leaving my bathroom soaked in blood and my room a trashy pigsty is pretty disgusting, don't you think, hn?"

Deidara tilted his head, gave Hidan a wide eyed innocent look and took off running down the aisle.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU BITCH!"

Sasori sighed as he watched an angry Hidan chase a laughing Deidara around the store.

"They're such idiots," Sasori sighed, resting his arm on the shopping cart.

He looked at Naomi and their eyes met.

She didn't smile but instead looked away.

Naomi had never seemed to like Sasori from the moment Deidara brought her home.

But she shrieked and giggled around everyone else. Well, Tobi was sort of an exception.

Sometimes he tried too hard to make her feel welcome and he ended up scaring her instead.

And it was really weird because Naomi especially seemed to like Hidan.

For the past two and a half weeks, she had gotten to know the trash talking, foul mouth jerk known as Hidan, who only took pleasure in seeing the little girl cry, yet she still preferred him over Sasori.

Sasori didn't understand.

"What the hell does it take to make you smile? All Hidan and Deidara do is look at you and you laugh," he grumbled.

Not being the kind of person who was good at interacting with others, this proved to be challenging for him.

"My parents died when I was little you know," Sasori found himself saying to the little blonde haired baby who was glancing uncertainly up at him.

"I'm guessing yours are dead as well. But you should consider yourself lucky. At least you have people taking care of you. Even if they are idiots." He glanced up at Deidara and Hidan who were now battling each other with a mop and a broomstick and a smirk crossed his face.

"Well, when you get older, I'll tell you what happened to your village. I mean, I don't really known what happened, but I won't keep you in the dark like my Grandmother did to me. You deserve to know you're an orphan. Just like me..." Sasori's voice trailed off.

Thinking about his past was painful. If he could have anything right now, it would be to have his parents back.

Of course they probably wouldn't be too happy with the way he's turned out, being an Akatsuki member and all.

But maybe he could undo some of the damage by helping out with Naomi. He didn't want her to grow up like he did, filled with thoughts of hate and revenge and loneliness.

Then again, he's jealous of the little girl. Growing up, his grandmother never really took care of him. Wasn't a proper guardian. He was never showed any love. He used to pretend his parents were with him and took care of him, but he had built them out of puppets, so it wasn't the same.

Yet, the little girl has only been with them for two and a half weeks and she's received more love than he has ever had in his whole life. And from total strangers too.

Deidara's usually with her, and that's no surprise seeing as how he's the one who rescued her and all.

Whenever Kisame is found with her, he's usually trying to make her laugh or doing something stupid like throwing her high up in the air and catching her. Deidara always yells at him when he's caught doing that.

Tobi's always giving her rides on his back or trying to teach her how to say "Tobi's a good boy."

Konan likes to sit quietly and watch movies with Naomi on her lap.

Kakuzu tries to teach Naomi how to walk whenever it's his turn with her. He figures that she can be more useful once she learns to walk. That way they can start teaching her how to use ninjutsu.

At least, that's what he tells everyone. But Sasori figures he actually likes spending time with the the little blonde haired girl.

Zetsu loves taking Naomi outside and teaching her about the plants and flowers that surround the hide out. He usually takes her to the greenhouse as well where he lets her play while he tends to his plants.

Deidara followed Zetsu the first couple of times because he didn't trust the guy not to eat Naomi. But it didn't seem necessary after the third day after Zetsu showed no desire to eat the young girl.

Pain and Itachi don't really spend time with Naomi, but they do their fair share to help out.

Just a couple of days ago Pain gave Naomi a bath. Sasori had been walking down the hallway at the time when he saw Pain drying Naomi off with a towel and he was smiling. Smiling! Pain never smiles.

Itachi's the one who usually puts Naomi to bed as she always falls asleep in his arms. She alternates where she sleeps but usually finds herself sleeping in Deidara and Sasori's room.

Hidan's a different story. He always curses and complains when he has to take care of her and throws a huge tantrum. But whenever he's done watching her he always seems reluctant to let go of her. He hides this well though. Of course. Can't let anyone see his soft side.

It's definitely exists though. Somewhere inside of him. He acts like a crazy killing machine that never shuts up about 99% of the time, but Hidan won't harm little children.

He never has before. He only kills when he has to. It might not seem like it with his long rants about killing people and the way he laughs maniacally when attacking people, but Sasori know it's true.

He's very observant of the other members of the Akatsuki.

Sasori doesn't know why Hidan's like this, but he assumes it has to do with his past. But in the Akatsuki, they never speak of their pasts. Only of the future. And their goals for the future.

So asking Hidan is out of the question no matter how curious he may be. Sasori didn't like to dwell on the past anyways. He could never forget how horrible his own was. It didn't matter how often he tried to forget about it and erase it from his memory.

Some things were so painful they never went away after leaving their mark.

Sasori shook his head and his thoughts turned back to the little girl who was sitting in front of him now making bubbles with her mouth and staring up at him curiously.

Whenever Sasori has Naomi because there's no mission to attend to, he usually brings her to his room and plops her on the floor while he goes to work on building better and stronger puppets.

Naomi usually starts crying because Sasori doesn't pay her enough attention and it annoys him that something so small begs to be taken care of every minute of the day.

Thinking about it now, Sasori decided he wouldn't just leave her alone like that anymore. He didn't want to constantly be entertaining her, but he'd figure something out.

A loud crash pulled Sasori out of his thoughts.

'That better not have been those two idiots,' thought Sasori before turning back to Naomi.

"So, are you going to give me a chance?" he asked her, his hand ruffling her blonde hair.

She grinned cheekily and said, "No!" her blonde hair now sticking straight up.

Rolling his eyes, Sasori figured she probably couldn't even understand him anyways.

About ten seconds later, a sopping wet Hidan and Deidara came sprinting down the aisle.

"Time to go!" Hidan yelled, pushing Sasori out of the way and grabbing the cart.

"He's right!" Deidara agreed throwing a couple packages of diapers into the full cart.

Sasori didn't want to ask but he couldn't help himself. "What did you guys do?"

Deidara and Hidan exchanged glances and both burst out laughing at the same time.

"You should have seen the looks on the manager's face-" Hidan had to clutch his side because he was laughing so hard.

"Kisame wouldn't be too pleased with us, hn," Deidara grinned giving Hidan a high five.

Sasori heard the heavy thuds of footsteps heading their way.

"What'd you guys do!"

"We may have, uh, broke a few fish tanks at the back of the store..."

"Hey, for the record, it was all Hidan's fault."

"Oh so now you're going to blame this fucking problem on me? I don't think so!"

One minute they're laughing giving each other high fives, the next they're wrestling on the ground screaming in each others faces.

Sasori sighed. He could swear they were both bi polar due to their constant mood swings.

"So you think you two can just come into my shop and break my expensive fish tanks without paying for it? Not to mention endangering the lives of the _expensive_ fish that lived in those tanks?" An angry manager accused both Deidara and Hidan who looked up from their fight on the ground.

Angry employees stood behind their manager. One of them held a cell phone in his hand. Looks like the police were getting involved.

"Deidara, it looks like you're going to have use your clay. Hidan grab the stuff in the cart, let's get out of here," Sasori ordered.

"With pleasure," Deidara smiled, cracking his knuckles.

Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed some clay and fed it to the mouth on his left hand.

When he knew it was ready he pulled it out and was about to throw it directly at the employees when he hesitated.

He felt uncomfortable killing people if it wasn't absolutely necessary ever since he found Naomi.

He promised himself he wouldn't just kill people like that anymore.

Throwing the clay a couple of aisles over he shouted, "Katsu!"

Sure enough, sweat started pouring down the manager's face as he ordered the other employees to check out the damage.

Deidara turned around to see a grumbling Hidan upset over the fact that he was holding a ton of baby stuff in his arms.

Sasori held Naomi and a package of baby food and was sprinting to the door.

Deidara laughed. He couldn't help it. Hidan looked so ridiculous.

Plus, he loved the thrill of having to get away.

Once they were all outside Deidara took clay and threw it into the air where it took on the form of a giant white bird.

When all four of them were safely on the bird, Deidara laughed, Hidan started complaining, Sasori sighed, and Naomi smiled at all three of them. Even Sasori.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N – Please read and review :)**

** Sorry for not updating after so long. But I have a lot of time on my hands these days so I will be able to update fairly regularly! Sorry to keep everyone who was waiting. Please enjoy!  
><strong>

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><p><strong><strong>~Two months later~<strong>**

Kisame opened his eyes as rays of morning sunlight shone brilliantly through his bedroom window.

"Ugh, go away!" His outburst was muffled as he pulled the covers over my head and turned away from the window to face the wall.

What the hell! Why was _his_ bed the one directly in front of the window.

Peeking out from behind his blanket, he glanced over at Itachi's empty bed, situated on the other side of the room, far away from the window. Of course it was neatly made. He scowled.

He's always so neat! Kisame looked back at his side of the room to see clothes tossed lazily on the floor. Oh well. We can't all be like Itachi.

And how the hell does he always wake up so early? Ah, whatever. At least he doesn't feel the need to wake Kisame up at five in the morning with him. "Itachi must be quiet too because I'm a light sleeper."

"What time is it anyway?" he grumbled, eyes still half closed. Glancing around the room lazily for the clock, he finally found it on the desk next to Itachi's bed.

It read 12:06 p.m.

"Whoa, what? Why would they let me sleep in that late? Isn't there a mission?"

He was ready to jump out of my bed right then and there but he really didn't want get up. His bed was so warm! And besides, his body was tired.

These past few missions have been pretty exhausting.

It's not the fighting that bothers him, no it's definitely not that, but for several days they had to go without any real food—mix that with nonstop fighting and it sure takes a toll on your body.

Just one day of rest was all he needed. Then he'd be raring to go again. Wouldn't want to miss out on an exciting fight.

That is of course if Itachi would actually give him permission to fight someone once in awhile. Kisame knew it sounded weird, him wanting Itachi's permission and all, but he really respect that guy's opinion.

He's extremely intelligent and very observant no matter what the situation is, not to mention one of the strongest Akatsuki members, so yeah, he does listen to him. It would be stupid not to. Although Kisame wished he would show some interest in violence or fighting.

Itachi's not a big fan of fighting and Kisame couldn't understand why! Nothing beats the adrenaline rush after a good, long fight. Itachi on the other hand likes to act quickly without drawing attention to himself.

Seeing Itachi fight is pretty awesome though. On that last mission they ran into his younger brother. It was so funny how the little pathetic kid thought he could beat Itachi. Kisame hated to admit it, but he knew that if it came down to it he wouldn't even defeat Itachi, so what chance does a puny little kid stand?

Itachi took out his younger brother in practically seconds. And Kisame suspected he wasn't even using a third of his power. That kid sure has a long way to go if he wants to beat his older brother. It'd be interesting if he did gain enough power to one day equal Itachi. Now there's a fight Kisame would like to see.

Unfortunately, their mission was a failure. They were supposed to capture that Naruto kid, the one who has the nine tails sealed inside him. Too bad that Sannin didn't fall for Itachi's trick and ended up showing up at the last minute.

They were forced to retreat because the Sannin changed the hallway into the mouth of a toad and who knows what would have happened if we ended up trapped there. But Kisame wasn't too disappointed. It wasn't much of a fight anyways.

Next time, hopefully the Naruto kid will have learned some cool techniques to prove he's a worthy ninja. Kisame loves a good fight. It's always so much more fun.

It was actually pretty strange because as they were leaving the village, Itachi seemed pretty satisfied about something. He looked the same as ever, his face a blank slate, emotionless, but Kisame could tell.

Sometimes he got the feeling Itachis hiding some big, dark secret. He hardly ever talks about himself and he's incredibly hard to read. He's definitely brilliant but Kisame wished he'd open up more. He would even go as far as calling he and Itachi friends, so he thinks Itachi should be able to trust him.

He would never relay his secret information, whatever it may be, to anyone else. That's low. He hates liars.

But Itachi might just be a quiet guy who doesn't like to socialize. Kisame already knew how much he hates drawing attention to himself. That might just be it.

Now that Kisame was thinking about this subject, the same could be said for that Sasori guy.

He rarely talks, if ever. His eyes are always focused, like he's deep in thought and he's usually locked up in his work room. Kisame wondered what secrets he had.

He knew Sasori always talked to Deidara, and occasionally Hidan, but usually that's to tell them to shut up or something.

Deidara's his partner though so that's understandable.

He'd ask Itachi or Sasori about themselves, but prying really wasn't his thing. If they wanted to talk about it they would. If not, oh well. Kisame wasn't going to hunt them down and question them.

However, he did wish they would lighten up. They're both so serious all the time. It's why he doesn't mind Tobi.

Or Naomi.

Tobi may be an idiot sometimes and goof off, but he works well with the Akatsuki and he's pretty funny.

And Naomi, well, he didn't know what it was about her, but she definitely brightened up his day.

He just hoped she wouldn't grow up to spill the Akatsuki's secrets.

Once she's older she might not like what they do.

Kisame would hate to have to kill her, but protecting the secrets of their organization comes before anything.

He sighed. Well, he'll just have to make sure she understands what we do and why we do it.

Once they teach her about ninjutsu and chakra, she could one day become more powerful than all of them. Hopefully she'll join the Akatsuki. She has to. Technically she's already part of it. She knows them as her family so Kisame didn't see why she wouldn't.

"Ugh, what am I doing? Instead of thinking I could be sleeping," Kisame moaned, staring unhappily at the ceiling.

Too late for that now that he's awake.

Hearing heavy footsteps thunder down the hallway, he turned his head around to look at the door.

There stood Kakuzu, in all his glory (just kidding), with what Kisame assume was a scowl on his face.

He couldn't see his face behind that mask of his, but he didn't look too pleased.

What was he doing here anyways? He usually counted on Itachi or the alarm to wake him up.

Kisame sat up, taking his time, then turned to greet the miser. "Hey Kakuzu!" he waved, a grin on his face.

Boy, did he look mutinous. Kisame laughed.

"Kisame, get your lazy ass out of bed. Pain would kill you if he knew you were in here sleeping the whole day away."

"Why, do we have a mission to attend to?" he asked a little too innocently.

"Don't play stupid. Or did you forget Pain gave us the next couple of days off while he and Konan go on a mission? It wouldn't surprise me."

Kisame raised my eyebrow at him. Hm, actually, he didn't know that. No wonder they let him sleep in so late.

"Oh Kakuzu, lighten up will you? Hey, is anyone else up? Are they making breakfast?" he was so looking forward to eating edible food after traveling without it for so long.

He and Itachi only got back last night after all, and to be honest, Kisame couldn't remember the last decent meal he ate.

Food was the only thing on his mind at the moment.

Reluctantly, Kisame left the comfort of his bed and got up to find Kakuzu still standing there.

"Yes? Can I help you? Or do you want to watch me change?" Kisame loved messing with Kakuzu.

Kakuzu, the strong, silent type, much like Itachi and Sasori, wasn't hiding any secrets, and Kisame didn't find him very interesting.

And even if he did have any, it probably had to with money or his bounties or something stupid like that.

"You're just like Hidan. Never know when to shut your mouth and keep quiet do you?"

"Well, sorry if I actually have a personality," Kisame said sarcastically. Was that going too far? Nah, Kakuzu didn't really have any feelings. He wasn't too worried. Besides, Kisame was only joking.

"Just get downstairs. Konan left a list of chores she and Pain want all of us to do. Apparently they're sick of living in a filthy mess and I can't blame them when we have slobs like you and Hidan living here."

"Hey, I can't help it if I like living like this. That's not my problem if you guys can't handle a little mess every now and then," Kisame said, raising his hands in defense.

"It's always a mess where you, Deidara, Hidan and Tobi are concerned. It doesn't matter that there's only four of you. You cause so much destruction between the four of you what with Deidara and his exploding clay, Hidan's bloody rituals, Tobi's always crashing into things and knocking them down, and you are just the laziest bastard I've ever met. You leave a mess everywhere you go."

"Well when you put it that way we do cause quite a mess don't we? Hmm I can see what you mean. This is a problem that definitely needs to be fixed," he said with a straight face, stroking his chin thoughtfully for a dramatic effect.

Kakuzu raised his arm ready to hit Kisame for acting like an idiot when Naomi ran in.

"Kaku," she said tugging on the hem of Kakuzu's robe, "Tobi make lunch!"

She sat down at Kakuzu's feet, grinning up at him, her finger in her mouth.

Sighing, Kakuzu bent down and scooped Naomi up in his arms.

"Alright, let's go get some lunch then. I can always take care of Kisame later."

Kisame noticed Kakuzu was choosing his words carefully around the little girl.

If she wasn't here he probably would have called Kisame every name under the sun.

"Awhh, what a touching moment. You would make a great father Kakuzu. Let me know when you find a girl who likes their men all stitched up, alright?" Kisame couldn't help it.

He could go on and on and on. If only Deidara or Hidan were around to appreciate his jokes right now.

Kakuzu growled at Kisame while Naomi beckoned with her small hand.

"Kiss, you come too?"

"Of course I will! You don't want old Kakuzu around you all the time," he chuckled, placing his hand on Kakuzu's shoulder. "Uncle Kisame will always be there to make you laugh, don't worry."

Kakuzu removed Kisame's hand off of him a lot more forcibly than he needed to.

Naomi giggled at Kisame than rested her head on Kakuzu's shoulder.

"Looks like someone's ready to take a nap. Where's Itachi when you need him? He can always put you straight to sleep," Kisame, said, flexing the muscles in his hand. Kakuzu sure has a strong grip. Kisame won't deny him that!

The three of them headed down the hallway and down the stairs where they were greeted by the unhappy faces of the rest of the Akatsuki gang. Except for Konan and Pain. Yeah, they were on a mission, my ass.

There's no doubt Pain has a thing for Konan. Kisame wondered if he was trying to seduce her somewhere. He struck Kisame as the romantic type. Maybe he's serenading her while playing the guitar on some beach under the moonlight.

She'd probably punch him if he ever tried that. Just the mental image of that whole scene was enough to make him burst out laughing. He wouldn't put it past Pain to do that.

He was a quiet guy and he always talked about bringing peace to the world with the Akatsuki's goals. Definitely sounds like a hopeless romantic.

Kisame's stomach growled and he turned hopefuilly towards kitchen where Tobi was bustling around putting the finishing touches on lunch.

The table was already set and Tobi placed a large pot of pasta down on the table. Next to it was a big bowl of tomato sauce.

See, he knew it was good to keep Tobi around. And Kisame had to admit, Tobi's a pretty good cook!

Sitting down, excited to start eating, he couldn't help but notice how quiet everyone was being.

"So guys, why the long faces? Is something wrong?" Kisame had to ask. He was curious now.

Deidara twirled his fork glumly into the pasta in front of him and held a piece of paper up with his other hand.

"Look at this long list of chores Konan left for us. I think she actually expects us to do it too."

"I'm not fucking doing any chores. That bitch can't make me!" Hidan said angrily, stuffing his face with pasta.

"No, but the rest of us can," a quiet voice said.

"Oh shut up Itachi. You don't intimidate me," Hidan smirked, flicking a piece of noodle onto Itachi's face.

Kisame leaned over the table grinning, wondering if Itachi would break or keep his emotions under control like usual.

The whole room was silent as Itachi's eye twitched and he slowly removed the piece of pasta from his cheek.

Itachi leaned over and said, "Watch yourself Hidan. You're not going to like what I do to you."

Without another word he walked away. He didn't even eat anything.

Awh man, Kisame had beenhoping for a show. That was so lame.

Deidara watched Itachi's retreating figure with a frown on his face. "Anyways, we should probably get started...ack!"

Tobi appeared out of nowhere, his arms around Deidara. "Ohhh I love cleaning! We should all do it together!"

"I swear Tobi I'm going to kill you if you ever do that again, hn!" Deidara screeched, flailing his arms trying to throw Tobi off him.

"Hey Tobi, you like cleaning right? **Why don't you just do all the chores then**?" Zetsu suggested.

"Yeah I agree. Cleaning and helping out just isn't my style," Kisame said, tilting his chair back and putting his arms behind his head.

"I'm not fucking doing it!"

"Shut up Hidan!" everyone shouted at the same time.

He glared at everyone and folded his arms across his chest.

The door opened. Looks like Itachi was back.

"Everyone, stop fighting and just do it. The sooner we get it done the sooner you can do whatever it is you want."

"I agree with Itachi," Sasori said. Of course Sasori would agree with him.

"I'll watch Naomi!" Kisame volunteered. "I mean, someone has to, don't they?"

"Oh no, you're not getting out of this that easily Kisame," Deidara said."I'll take her with me while I...," Deidara scanned the sheet before turning back around and saying, "while I clean my room and do the laundry I guess...hn.."

"Why are you doing two things Senpai?" Tobi asked, leaning really close towards Deidara.

"Uhh, don't call me that," Deidara replied, inching away from Tobi. "and it says next to my name, your name, Kisame's and Hidan's name that we have to clean our rooms as well as do something else on the list. Hn."

"What the fuck?" Hidan slammed his head down on the table. "One day I'm just going to fucking kill Pain and Konan. That way we don't have to deal with all this shit."

"Maybe we should just get a maid," Kisame suggested. He really didn't want to clean. Come on, seriously? What a waste of time.

Itachi took the list out of Deidara's hands and read over it quickly.

"Alright, listen up. Tobi, you've got then kitchen and you're room. Sasori, vacuum the whole house. Hidan, you're room and the bathroom-"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" This outburst from Hidan wasn't unexpected.

"As I was saying," Itachi said through clenched teeth, "Deidara, you already know what you're doing. Kisame and Kakuzu, pick up all the crap around the house and put it back where it belongs. Oh, and you're room Kisame. Zetsu, clean the yard. Make the hide out less recognizable from the outside. And I will clean out the fridge and go to the store to pick up more food and supplies we need. Any questions?"

"Oh yeah, give yourself the easiest thing, stupid Itachi," Hidan muttered as he headed up the stairs to "clean" his room.

* * *

><p>Deidara sighed from his place on the floor in the living room, next to the couch. He was currently folding clothes and it was taking way too long for his liking.<p>

The clothes wouldn't fold properly and there was so many of them. He was ready to just take out a lighter and burn them all to a crisp so he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

Naomi sat next to him playing with a stuffed animal that she got from Tobi's room.

She liked stacking them on top of each other than whacking it over with her hand. Wait, why did Tobi have those anyway?

Shrieking with laughter as the tower of stuffed animals fell toppled over, Deidara turned to smirk at her.

"Now that's art. Nice work. Hey, why don't you go get your Uncle Sasori and show him what you like to do, hmmm?" Deidara smiled at Naomi.

She grinned and ran over to where Sasori was standing in the living room, trying to figure out how to start the vacuum.

Pulling on the hem on Sasori's cloak she said, "Sas!"

Sasori glanced down at his visitor. Over the past couple of months, their relationship had dramatically improved.

Even though she genuinely seemed to like him, he still felt a little uneasy around the girl. In fact, he was kind of nervous that she might hate him as she gets older.

He did wipe out an entire nation after all. Children included. And without any mercy. What if she found out?

"Ugh," he frowned. It ticked him off. Why did she make him want to regret his actions? Why does he even want her to like him? There's no point.

He is an S-class criminal after all. He's taken countless lives. Why should she be any different? It's so stupid. Getting attached to people. Especially annoying little children like her.

The others didn't hide their emotions very well. If they're trying to that is. Kisame, Tobi, Konan, Deidara, Zetsu, and Kakuzu all seem to like her. Of course, none of them would come straight out and say that, except Tobi, and possibly Deidara.

With Itachi and Pain, it's difficult to say what thoughts run through their heads, but they like her well enough to let her stay. Sasori wondered if Pain still thinks about getting rid of her.

And Hidan has a love/hate relationship thing going on with her.

But they shower her with gifts, play ridiculous games with her, and Sasori even caught Kakuzu telling her a bedtime story. The whole story revolved around some guy that desperately needed money and his adventures, but still. It was weird.

That some little girl who couldn't be no more than a year old could bring out the softer side in all of them.

They all went out of their way to make sure she lived a comfortable lifestyle, and it was almost like they were some kind of family.

Family.

That word pissed Sasori off more than anything.

He hated to admit it, but sometimes he couldn't help but smile when he thought of Naomi and the Akatsuki as a family. They eat together, argue with one another like siblings do, and spend time together doing the most random things. If you consider killing people spending time together that is. Sasori had to admit that sounded messed up.

But you could call their organization close. Sort of. He didn't know. He had never really thought about it before. Deidara's the closest thing he had to a brother. The way they always argue about art and try to out do each other.

Sasori always won though.

Tobi annoys everyone but he does lighten up the mood. And he makes them laugh every now and again.

Hidan of course gets on everyone's nerves with his foul mouth and weird rituals, but he was always joking with everyone and it really just seemed like he wanted to be noticed.

Kisame was like the older brother, trying to pretend he's in charge of everyone when in reality he's really just lazy and tries to get everyone to do everything for him. But he was alright. Kisame just got along well with pretty much everyone.

Zetsu minded his own business and mostly tended to his plants and flowers in the greenhouse. No one ever starts a fight with him because he actually genuinely seems pretty nice and mature.

Konan and Pain are pretty quiet people and also keep to themselves.

They act as the leaders of the organization so when comparing it to a family, they could be considered the parents.

Sasori sighed. Parents. That word brings back all those awful memories.

He's always felt like there's been a hole in his heart ever since he found out his parents were dead.

No brothers or sisters. No parents. What's it even like to have a family? To be loved?

Who knows. And no, his grandmother didn't count.

All she's ever done is lie. Sasori hated liars.

The sound of someone crying brought him back to reality.

Looking down, he realized that Naomi was sitting at his feet crying.

"Sas," she cried, wiping her eyes.

Had he been ignoring her this whole time? Ah, whoops.

"Hey, what's going on?" Deidara must have taken a break from doing the laundry because he was now standing in front of me.

"I was distracted," Sasori snapped. "I didn't make her cry on purpose!"

"Okay, okay," Deidara said, raising his arms in defense, "I just wanted to see what the problem was. Hey Sasori, my man, I was thinking, since we have the next couple of days off, I'm going to take Naomi somewhere. Like the park or something, I don't know. But she deserves to see the outside world, right?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Sasori agreed. "Good luck finding someone willing to go with you."

**A/N – This chapter took me so long to write! But I hope you liked it! To give you a quick preview of the next chapter, Deidara and Naomi are going to end up going somewhere like the park or somewhere, (I don't know where yet) but I want there to be another Akatsuki member there as well. I'm not sure who to put so I'd like to hear your opinions. Who would you like to see go with them?**

**Oh and they are going to end up running into some fellow ninja we all know and love hehe~**


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